County Board Hears Presentations On Grant Programs

By Chris English

SCHOHARIE COUNTY — The Schoharie County Board of Supervisors seemed agreeable to applying for one grant program and heard about the success of another at its Friday, March 21 meeting.

County Planning and Community Services Director Shane Nickle and Schoharie Economic Enterprise Corporation (SEEC) Executive Director Julie Pacatte addressed the board early in the meeting, with Pacatte's talk also featuring a visual presentation on a screen including charts and graphs.

Nickle briefed board members on the advantages of applying for County Wide Micro Enterprise grants under the federal Community Development Block Grant program while Pacatte talked about a similar grant program she said has brought a lot of success during the last four years.

Nickle said the county would be applying for a grant of $240,000 designed to help eight small businesses in the next two years. He added that he's looking to put the application in for April. Some of the qualifications would be a low to moderate income business owner with a business of five employees or less including the owner. The business could have no more than $200,000 in liquid assets.

Nickle added that grant money could only be used for machinery and similar uses and could not be used for real estate, paying off debt or construction. The owner would also have to be current on all property taxes.

Pacatte said a Digital Strategies program started in 2021 in the wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic involved cooperation between SEEC, the county and the villages of Middleburgh and Schoharie. She continued that the program has had $1.2 million to work with since 2021 and has benefitted 39 businesses and the two villages.

"Overall, it created 18 full-time equivalent jobs and 30 jobs total when you include part-time," she said. "We Wi-Fied Middleburgh and Schoharie and provided free access to the Internet for many residents. Two-thirds of the businesses benefited were women owned."

Among the positive results of the program were solar powered charging stations near benches in the two villages where residents could charge their phones or computers for free, Pacatte said.